The 56th Texas Legislature met from January 13, 1959 to May 7, 1959 and in three special sessions from May to August of that same year. All members present during this session were elected in the 1958 general elections.

Sessions

Regular Session: January 13, 1959 - May 12, 1959


1st Called Session: May 18, 1959 - June 16, 1959


2nd Called Session: June 17, 1959 - July 16, 1959


3rd Called Session: July 17, 1959 - Aug 6, 1959

Senate

Affiliation		Members	Note
	Democratic Party Democratic Party (United States) The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...	31
Total		31

House

Affiliation		Members	Note
	Democratic Party Democratic Party (United States) The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...	150
Total		150

Senate

• Lieutenant Governor: Ben Ramsey
  Ben Ramsey
  Ben Ramsey was a Texas politician who served in a succession of offices during the mid-20th century. He served in both Houses of the Texas Legislature, as secretary of state, Lieutenant Governor, and as member of the Texas Railroad Commission.Ramsey was born on December 28, 1903 in San Augustine,...
  
   (D)
• President Pro Tempore: George Parkhouse
  George Parkhouse
  George M. Parkhouse was a Democratic member of both the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas Senate from District 8 Dallas County. He served in the House from 1933 to 1935 and from 1943 to 1951...
  
   (D), Rudolph A. Weinert
  Rudolph A. Weinert
  Rudolph A. Weinert was a politician from Seguin, Texas, who served in the Texas Senate for 27 years.-Early life and family:Rudolph A. Weinert was born December 19, 1894. Weinert was married to Johnnie Ponton from 1905 until her death in 1973. They had one daughter.-Career: Weinert was a...
  
   (D),

Jarrard Secrest (D), Andrew J. “Andy” Rogers

Andrew J. Rogers

Andrew Jackson Rogers was an American lawyer, teacher, clerk, police commissioner and Democratic Party politician who represented in the United States House of Representatives from 1863-1867.-Biography:...

 (D), Abraham “Chick” Kazen

Abraham Kazen

Abraham Kazen, Jr., usually known as Chick Kazen was a U.S. Representative from Texas from 1967 to 1985.- Education :...

 (D), Frank Owen, III

Frank Owen, III

Frank Owen III was a Texas legislator.Born in El Paso, Texas, Owen served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1951 to 1955 and in the Texas State Senate from 1955 to 1965.-References:*...

 (D)

Senate

Dist. 1

• Howard A. Carney (D), Atlanta
  Atlanta, Texas
  Atlanta is a city in Cass County, Texas, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 5,745.-Geography:Atlanta is located at ....
  
  

Dist. 2

• Wardlow Lane (D), Center
  Center, Texas
  Center is a city in Shelby County, Texas, United States. The population was 5,678 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Shelby County...
  
  

Dist. 3

• Martin Dies, Jr.
  Martin Dies, Jr.
  Martin Dies, Jr. was a Texas politician and a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives. His father, Martin Dies, was also a member of the United States House of Representatives.-Biography:...
  
   (D), Lufkin
  Lufkin, Texas
  Lufkin is a city in Angelina County, Texas, United States. Founded in 1882, the population was 35,067 in 2010. It is the county seat of Angelina County, and is situated in Deep East Texas.-History:...
  
  

Dist. 4

• Jep Fuller (D), Port Arthur
  Port Arthur, Texas
  -Demographics:As of the 2000 census, there were 57,755 people, 21,839 households, and 14,675 families residing in the city. The population density was 696.5 people per square mile . There were 24,713 housing units at an average density of 298.0 per square mile...
  
  

Dist. 5

• Neveille H. Colson (D), Navasota
  Navasota, Texas
  Navasota is a city in Grimes County, Texas, United States. The population was 6,789 at the 2000 census. In 2005, the Texas Legislature named the city "The Blues Capital of Texas," in honor of the late Mance Lipscomb, a Navasota native and blues musician....
  
  

Dist. 6

• Robert W. Baker (D), Houston
  Houston, Texas
  Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
  
  

Dist. 7

• Bill D. Wood (D), Tyler
  Tyler, Texas
  Tyler is a city in and the county seat of Smith County, Texas, in the United States. It takes its name from President John Tyler . The city had a population of 109,000 in 2010, according to the United States Census Bureau...
  
  

Dist. 8

• George M. Parkhouse
  George Parkhouse
  George M. Parkhouse was a Democratic member of both the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas Senate from District 8 Dallas County. He served in the House from 1933 to 1935 and from 1943 to 1951...
  
   (D), Dallas
  Dallas, Texas
  Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
  
  

Dist. 9

• Ray Roberts
  Ray Roberts
  Herbert Ray Roberts represented Texas's 4th congressional district from 1962 to 1981. Roberts was a Democrat.-Early life and education:...
  
   (D), McKinney
  McKinney, Texas
  McKinney is a city in and the county seat of Collin County, Texas, United States, and the second in population to Plano. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 131,117 The Census Bureau listed McKinney as the nation's fastest growing city from 2000 to 2003 and again in...
  
  

Dist. 10

• Doyle Willis (D), Fort Worth
  Fort Worth, Texas
  Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
  
  

Dist. 11

• William T. "Bill" Moore
  William T. Moore (Texas politician)
  William Tyler Moore, Sr., known as W. T. 'Bill' Moore , was an attorney and businessman in Bryan, Texas, who was a conservative Democratic member of the Texas State Senate from District 5 from 1967 until 1981.Moore originally represented District 14 from 1949 to 1953 and then revised District 11...
  
   (D), Bryan
  Bryan, Texas
  Bryan is a city in Brazos County, Texas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 76,201. It is the county seat of Brazos County and is located in the heart of the Brazos Valley . It shares its border with the city of College Station, which lies to its south...
  
  

Dist. 12

• Crawford Martin
  Crawford Martin
  Crawford Collins Martin was a Texas State Senator, Texas Secretary of State and Attorney General of Texas from 1967 until his death.-Early life:...
  
   (D), Hillsboro
  Hillsboro, Texas
  Hillsboro is a city in and the county seat of Hill County in Central Texas. The population was 8,232 at the 2000 census.Hillsboro, located on Interstate 35 where I-35E and I-35W meet south of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, is the primary center for trade and commerce in Hill County...
  
  

Dist. 13

• Jarrard Secrest (D), Temple
  Temple, Texas
  Temple is a city in Bell County, Texas, United States. Located near the county seat of Belton, Temple lies in the region referred to as Central Texas. Located off Interstate 35, Temple is 65 miles north of Austin and 34 miles south of Waco. In the 2010 Census, Temple's population was 66,102, an...
  
  

Dist. 14

• Charles F. Herring (D), Austin
  Austin, Texas
  Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
  
  

Dist. 15

• Culp Krueger (D), El Campo
  El Campo, Texas
  El Campo is a city in Wharton County, Texas, United States. The population was 10,945 at the 2000 census, making it the largest city in Wharton County.-Geography:...
  
  

Dist. 16

• Louis Crump (D), San Saba
  San Saba, Texas
  San Saba is a town located in Central Texas. It was settled in 1854 and named for its location on the San Saba River. The population was at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of San Saba County...
  
  

Dist. 17

• Jimmy Phillips
  Jimmy Phillips (Texas)
  Jimmy Phillips was a Texas State Senator from Angleton, Texas in the 1940s and 50s.-Early life:Phillips was born in Brazoria County, Texas, on May 17, 1913. He was orphaned at an early age and raised by extended family and friends in Angleton...
  
   (D), Angleton
  Angleton, Texas
  Angleton is a city in and the county seat of Brazoria County, Texas, United States, within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. Angleton lies at the intersection of State Highway 288, State Highway 35, and the Union Pacific Railroad. The population was 18,130 at the 2000 census...
  
  

Dist. 18

• William S. Fly (D), Victoria
  Victoria, Texas
  Victoria is a city in and the seat of Victoria County, Texas, United States. The population was 60,603 at the 2000 census. The three counties of the Victoria Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 111,163 at the 2000 census,...
  
  

Dist. 19

• Rudolph A. Weinert
  Rudolph A. Weinert
  Rudolph A. Weinert was a politician from Seguin, Texas, who served in the Texas Senate for 27 years.-Early life and family:Rudolph A. Weinert was born December 19, 1894. Weinert was married to Johnnie Ponton from 1905 until her death in 1973. They had one daughter.-Career: Weinert was a...
  
   (D), Seguin
  Seguin, Texas
  Seguin is a city in Guadalupe County, Texas, in the United States. It is part of the San Antonio-New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 22,011; the July 1, 2009 Census estimate, however, showed the population had increased to 26,842...
  
  

Dist. 20

• Bruce Reagan (D), Corpus Christi
  Corpus Christi, Texas
  Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...
  
  

Dist. 21

• Abraham Kazen
  Abraham Kazen
  Abraham Kazen, Jr., usually known as Chick Kazen was a U.S. Representative from Texas from 1967 to 1985.- Education :...
  
   (D), Laredo
  Laredo, Texas
  Laredo is the county seat of Webb County, Texas, United States, located on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. According to the 2010 census, the city population was 236,091 making it the 3rd largest on the United States-Mexican border,...
  
  

Dist. 22

• Wayne Wagonseller (D), Stoneburg
  Stoneburg, Texas
  Stoneburg is an unincorporated community in Montague County, Texas, United States. It had a population of approximately 51 in 1990.-History:Stoneburg sits at the intersection of U.S. Route 81 and Farm to Market Road 1806 in east central Montague County. Bowie Lake is southwest of the town...
  
  

Dist. 23

• George Moffett (D), Chillicothe
  Chillicothe, Texas
  Chillicothe is a city in Hardeman County, Texas, United States. The population was 798 at the 2000 census.The historical preservationist Myna Potts resides in Chillicothe...
  
  

Dist. 24

• David Ratliff (D), Stamford
  Stamford, Texas
  Stamford is a small city located on the border of Jones and Haskell counties in the western part of the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 3,111 in 2008. H. McHarg, president of the Texas Central Railroad, named the site in 1900 for his hometown in Connecticut...
  
  

Dist. 25

• Dorsey Hardeman (D), San Angelo
  San Angelo, Texas
  San Angelo is a city in the state of Texas. Located in West Central Texas it is the county seat of Tom Green County. As of 2010 according to the United States Census Bureau, the city had a total population of 93,200...
  
  

Dist. 26

• Henry B. Gonzalez
  Henry B. Gonzalez
  Henry Barbosa González was a Democratic politician from the state of Texas. He represented Texas's 20th congressional district from 1961 to 1999.-Background:...
  
   (D), San Antonio
  San Antonio, Texas
  San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
  
  

Dist. 27

• Hubert R. Hudson (D), Brownsville
  Brownsville, Texas
  Brownsville is a city in the southernmost tip of the state of Texas, in the United States. It is located on the northern bank of the Rio Grande, directly north and across the border from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Brownsville is the 16th largest city in the state of Texas with a population of...
  
  

Dist. 28

• Preston Smith (D), Lubbock
  Lubbock, Texas
  Lubbock is a city in and the county seat of Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The city is located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, and the home of Texas Tech University and Lubbock Christian University...
  
  

Dist. 29

• Frank Owen, III
  Frank Owen, III
  Frank Owen III was a Texas legislator.Born in El Paso, Texas, Owen served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1951 to 1955 and in the Texas State Senate from 1955 to 1965.-References:*...
  
   (D), El Paso
  El Paso, Texas
  El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
  
  

Dist. 30

• Andrew J. "Andy" Rogers
  Andrew J. Rogers
  Andrew Jackson Rogers was an American lawyer, teacher, clerk, police commissioner and Democratic Party politician who represented in the United States House of Representatives from 1863-1867.-Biography:...
  
   (D), Childress
  Childress, Texas
  Childress is a city in Childress County, Texas, United States. The population was 6,778 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Childress County. Like the county, the city is named for George Campbell Childress, a native of Nashville, Tennessee, who was the principal author of the Texas...
  
  

Dist. 31

• Grady Hazlewood
  Grady Hazlewood
  Grady Hazlewood was a Democratic member of the Texas State Senate from 1941 to 1971, having represented the Amarillo-based District 31 in the Panhandle...
  
   (D), Amarillo
  Amarillo, Texas
  Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...
  
  

House

The House was composed of 150 Democrats.

House members included future Congressmen Robert Eckhardt, Kika de la Garza

Kika de la Garza

Eligio “Kika” de la Garza, II was the Democratic representative for the 15th congressional district of Texas from January 3, 1965, to January 3, 1997....

 and Joe Pool, as well as future Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock

Bob Bullock

Robert Douglas Bullock, known as Bob Bullock , was a Democratic politician from Texas, whose career spanned four decades. His service culminated in his term as Lieutenant Governor of Texas from January 15, 1991–January 19, 1999 during the terms of Governors Ann Richards and George W...

, future Texas Attorney General Waggoner Carr

Waggoner Carr

Vincent Waggoner Carr was a Democratic Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives and Attorney General of Texas.-Early years, education, military service:...

, and future Land Commissioner Jerry Sadler

Jerry Sadler

Jerry Sadler was a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas Railroad Commission. From 1961 to 1971, he was the elected Commissioner of the General Land Office.-Early years:...

.

Sources

• Legislative Reference Library of Texas, http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/legis/members/roster.cfm